5 June 2003
The South African Communist Party (SACP) welcomes the call by the Solidarity trade union for the entire trade union movement of our country to agree on a workers’ pact to promote economic growth and development. Through the SACP-led financial sector campaign we have for instance already placed the question of control and investment of workers’ financial resources, including pension, provident funds and insurance savings, at the centre of the economic debate in South Africa generally and at NEDLAC in particular. The question of the buying power of trade unions in general is also a crucial leverage, as Solidarity correctly argues, in the hands of the working class to advance growth and development and the interests of trade union members and broader society.
The SACP particularly welcomes this call by Solidarity, as we have consistently pointed out that it is time that we challenge the unilateral control and investment decisions over workers’ funds by the financial institutions of the capitalist classes. In the wake of the Growth and Development Summit (GDS) it is also clear that major struggles still have to be waged by the trade union movement and the working class as a whole over decisions around investments of workers’ monies. A united working class must break the seemingly arrogant culture of entitlement by business to want to use workers’ monies as it deems fit. In any case the locomotive for taking forward any agreements on the GDS will be united trade union action and the working class as a whole to work towards transforming the current accumulation regime in favour of the workers and the poor.
It is our belief that this call by Solidarity should be located within the broader goal of deepening trade union unity in our country, and earnestly work towards the goal of one country one federation. Pooling together financial resources in the hands of the workers would be an important step towards this objective. There is increasingly more that unites the working class than divides it, including the common challenge of unemployment, retrenchments, poverty and the current global neo-liberal restructuring of the economy, including the workplace. There is therefore an urgent need to move decisively towards the unity and united action by the trade union movement and the general unity of the working class across colour and ethnic lines.
As the leading political party of the working class and pioneer of the non-racial trade union movement in South Africa, the SACP is ready to engage Solidarity and the entire trade union movement, on all these questions. We are already this year engaged in intensive internal debate as the SACP on the state of the trade union movement, and the challenges facing the working class in general. In taking forward this debate, the SACP has already taken a decision to devote most of the discussions at its next Central Committee in August this year to discussing the question of trade union unity, and measures required to realise this objective.
We reiterate our belief that it is only a united working class; uniting African, Coloured, Indian and White workers; on the basis of a progressive non-racial outlook, that is the social force best capable of taking our country out of the current crisis of unemployment and poverty, and lead South African society towards a better life for all.
Mazibuko K. Jara (surname Jara)
Department of Media, Information & Publicity
South African Communist Party
3rd Floor, COSATU House, 1-5 Leyds Street
Braamfontein, 2017, Republic of South Africa
Tel: 27 11 339-3621/2, Fax: 27 11 339-4244 Cell: 083 651 0271
Email - mazibuko@sacp.org.za